Joey Kovar Reality of Addiction

Upon learning of the death of reality tv star Joey Kovar, I was saddened by another heartbreaking casualty in the addiction battle. One can only hope that some small blessing in disguise comes out of what otherwise is just plain tragedy. Despite previously having some time in recovery, Kovar was found dead yesterday, at age 29, after several years of his public battle with alcoholism and drug addiction.  

Kovar & Dr. Drew  (VH1 Celerity Rehab)

Celebrity Addicts Bring Addiction Closer to Home 

Before the advent of shows like Celebrity Rehab and Sober House, news of Joey Kovar’s death would not have even made top headlines. When his fellow Celebrity Rehab member, Mike Starr, tragically died from addiction, his death most likely would have just been another random headline about some celebrity drug addict found dead. Only Alice in Chains fans for the most part would have been talking about it. However, within minutes of the announcement of his death in March, Mike Starr was a trending topic on Twitter, with countless civilians and celebrities alike chiming in on the sad report. What was different about Mike Starr? We got to know him. The millions who tuned in weekly to Celebrity Rehab witnessed Mike’s struggles and saw that beneath the angry addict was a lost teddy bear with a big heart. We got to see the person behind the persona, behind the addiction. The same goes for Joey Kovar whose private life was mainstreamed through The Real World on MTV and then Celebrity Rehab on VH1. When Kovar was sober, he was determined to be a positive influence on the masses. 

Progressive and Fatal

Addiction is a progressive and fatal disease. Untreated, the addiction gets worse and worse - ultimately resulting in a premature death. Commonly, most lay folks to the world of addiction only view two aspects of the addiction scene; First, the oftentimes deceivingly glamorized lifestyle of rockstar-type celebs during their active “partying” daze. And later, folks learn of the end of the line aspect of addiction when news of tragic overdose, suicide, or accident ends in death as in the examples of Mike Starr and Joey Kovar, to name just a couple. 

Being found dead as a result of addiction is certainly not glamorous. Thus the countless numbers of every day non-famous individuals who die daily as a result of addiction never make the news. The truth is, addiction is absolutely an epidemic in the US and worldwide; and when you add the family and friends of addicts to the picture, there are many more millions of people affected by the disease.  

Looking for Hope in Tragedy 

It’s safe to assume that Dr. Drew’s goal in creating the shows Celebrity Rehab and Sober House was not only to help some celebrities get sober but also to educate the masses on the truth about addiction and the hope of recovery. And sadly, part of that quest involves bringing widespread awareness to the hard truth of the casualty rate in this addiction war.

While it may seem relatively commonplace to lose a celebrity to booze and drugs, they represent just a grain of sand in the broad landscape of everyday millions who suffer from the deadly illness! So as we send our prayers out to the friends and family of the latest celebrity casuality of addiction – Joey Kovar this week- let’s add an intention that this tragic loss carries forth a hidden blessing… As sober Joey certainly would have wanted it.

Let’s hope that there is a positive twist on this tragedy in what cannot be measured or viewed in the news – that a result of greater awareness of the progressive fatal nature of alcoholism and addiction exemplified through Joey Kovar’s public battle, many struggling individuals whose stories we will never hear about in the news, actually get help and stay sober.

Physical Health in Addiction Recovery

Addiction is a disease that affects the body, mind and spirit. Apart from the action of physically abstaining from the alcohol and recreational drugs, most people in recovery are not given further advice in regards to addressing the physical effect of the disease on your body. Many recovering alcoholics are not aware that, late in his life, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson was trying to educate doctors on the importance of vitamin supplementation in the treatment of alcoholism. In the A.A. text, there are references to the physical damage from addiction such as:

“… the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic…”  —Alcoholics Anonymous p.157

The main reasons to address your physical health in recovery: 

1. To aid in staying clean and sober, give your relapse prevention a boost. Taking certain actions can give you a physical advantage, i.e. addressing cravings by balancing your blood sugar, to help you stay away from a drink or drug. Remember, half of H.A.L.T. is purely physical (Hungry, Tired). Plus, addressing your physical health can support your mental and spiritual recovery too!

2. To help reverse the internal damage done, decrease chances of future health challenges, and enhance quality of life so that recovery can be enjoyed to the fullest and your capacity for service work maximized.

“A body badly burned by alcohol does not often recover overnight” A.A., p. 133

Self-sabotage, risky behavior and a conscious or subconscious death-wish naturally accompany active addiction. As a result of an attitude shift after putting down the drug, you may suddenly realize that you are likely to live a lot longer than you perhaps previously (consciously or subconsciously) anticipated. Depending on how long you have been sober, perhaps that thought has already crossed your mind. 

So once you have accepted that you are likely to live a longer life sober, why not start treating your body right so that you can enjoy quality of life in the quantity available to you now. Assuming you didn’t get sober to be chronically sick, tired and miserable; you really ought to consider how to address this critical physical aspect of your recovery.

Awareness + Action = Results. To create an action plan for your physical health and wellness in recovery, you can seek out a holistic practitioner or coach who specializes in wellness and addiction recovery, or a clinical nutritionist or naturopathic physician who has experience working with recovering alcoholics and addicts.

AA Success Rate

AA Success Rate in Question

With Charlie Sheen’s latest rant claiming that AA is a cult and dismissing it as an effective solution supposedly having only a 5% success rate, this controversial topic seems blog-worthy. The “cult” part is not even worth addressing as it is so preposterous, and if Sheen was really an AA member “for 22 years” he should certainly know that is a classic ridiculous myth. The success rate of Alcoholics Anonymous, however, is a more interesting topic…

Dr. Drew Pinsky, celebrity addiction specialist, was approached by TMZ about Charlie Sheen’s comments and noted that Sheen had a point about the success rate not being great, yet in the same breathe Dr. Drew clarifies, “but [A.A.] DOES work when people do it!”

A.A. Success Rate Impossible to Measure

From the time spent in Research Methods classes long ago, I can confidently say that it is impossible to accurately measure the success rate of Alcoholics Anonymous. There are simply so many factors that make it impossible, and countless variables that can’t be controlled for a valid study. I won’t waste our time detailing all of them here, so you’ll just have to trust me on that if you have no background in scientific research. Besides the obvious (how does one study and track an anonymous population?), I will just address a couple key points that come to mind.

How do you define success in AA? And how do you define AA membership? The problem is that most people who attempt to estimate the AA success rate base it on the number of AA members with a certain length of sobriety reported (which again, is impossible to measure anyway) compared to an overall number of “AA members” (also impossible to accurately measure!). This leads to the question of who is considered “members”.

In the 12 traditions of AA, all that is required for membership is “a desire to stop drinking”. Even by that loose definition, you still couldn’t include every single person who has attended an AA meeting because there are plenty of people who are court ordered to attend (apparently our judicial system thinks the success rate is high enough to warrant AA attendance mandatory for offenders suspected to have a drinking problem).

A.A. Meeting Attendance Today

There was a better chance at more accurately estimating the success rate of AA in the early days, when there were few groups, and members tended to have just one local meeting they attended… in contrast to today, where in some areas you could attend several different meetings in the same day in the same town… and the meetings may have 50+ in attendance which also makes it difficult to keep track of who is who, much less who has been sober for how long and who is actually attempting to work the 12 steps.

Every day, countless individuals wander into an AA meeting just to check it out. Thousands more go to numerous meetings but never attempt to start and/or complete working on all 12 steps which are the basis of AA’s method of recovery. For example, the AA literature states that those who do not complete the 5th step are very likely to relapse…. They also wrote of their own attempts at recovery: “half measures availed us nothing”. So certainly the founders expected that members must work the 12 steps if the individuals truly wished to acquire long term sobriety, as the founders did.

“Dry” or “Sober”

30 million Big Books sold

AA is a 12 step program, not a “just go to meetings” program. It is a spiritual program of recovery based on actively working a process of 12 steps and integrating them into one’s life. You can’t measure that – it’s subjective by nature. You can measure if someone is “clean” or “dry” from drugs and alcohol for a period of time, but is difficult to measure true sobriety. AA founding member, Bill Wilson advocated emotional sobriety, and the happier life that results from being emotionally sober (aka alcohol-free AND living spiritually). …which is why when Charlie Sheen publicly spews negative angry rants, and in the same moment claims he is “clean and sober”, sober AA members must shake their heads as while he might be clean of drugs and alcohol but he does not sound the least bit emotionally sober.

Success Rate of the Early A.A. Members

In the early days of AA, when it was much easier to get somewhat of an accurate estimate of membership and length of sobriety, the founders did attempt to estimate the success rate. In the foreword to the 2nd edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous (the main text of AA), printed in 1955 just 16 years after the original edition, they wrote:

“Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few A.A. meetings and at first decided they didn't want the program. But great numbers of these-about two out of three-began to return as time passed.”

Wow, so essentially they reported at least a 75% sobriety success rate of those who kept showing up and working at it. That was before the days of our modern rehabs, outpatient services, alternative 12 step programs, countless self-help books, etc. It was straight AA; the spiritual 12 step program where people were encouraged to work all 12 steps right away as Bill did, and they only focused on the main text of Alcoholics Anonymous as the instructions for sober living.

If there were a way to measure the amount of people who actively participate in AA meetings and work the 12 steps as recommended by the founders of AA, then that would be the population to survey for length of sobriety to determine the success rate of AA as a program! I wish there were a way, as I am confident the success rate would be high for those whom are honestly, willingly, and consistently working through the suggested 12 steps of recovery outlined by the founders of A.A. in the original text of Alcoholics Anonymous. …and with an accurate report of A.A.’s actual effectiveness, Charlie Sheen couldn’t blame AA’s success rate for his chronic relapses.

Charlie Sheen didn’t learn the 12 Traditions apparently…

One of the reasons Alcoholics Anonymous established the 12 Traditions was to address this type of issue- when a celebrity announces their participation in AA and then proceeds to comment about AA in the media, they are representing A.A. which is exactly what the Tradition says not to do (regardless of positive or negative comments about the program, AA does not wish to be represented by any individual on the level of press). It is good that Sheen does not claim to be a member of AA currently while his behavior seems manic, full of anger and grandiosity. As another Tradition states, AA is a program of attraction, not promotion.

Hopefully the countless hopeless alcoholics who could indeed benefit from Alcoholics Anonymous were not influenced by the ranting of one sick misguided celebrity who may be “dry” of his own accord but it not “sober” by AA standards. Thankfully, AA as a whole is too strong to be affected by Charlie Sheen’s public inaccurate defamation.